First the countries
of the world were trying to decide who their best pop star was. Now they're
trying to name their best citizens.

Following the lead of Britain, who held a "Greatest Briton" survey
in 2002, over a dozen countries have so far held popular votes through their
national TV network to determine their greatest citizen.

This is the way it
usually works. The network makes a website, where ordinary people can submit
names of great individuals. After a certain cut-off point, the network tallies
all the entries, and assembles a list of the top ten most popular names. Over
the course of the next few weeks, ten local national celebrities (usually of
a b-list nature) serve as official "advocates" for one each of the
top ten greats on ten special episodes. When this is done, a second public vote
is held to rank the top ten, and determine the greatest citizen of all.

Mahatma
Ghandi, India's leading independence leader and "father of the nation"
was excluded from the voting process because he is already widely revered by
most Indians, and was thus deemed to be "above" such a contest.

India
is also the only country to date that held their contest through a magazine,
rather than than a TV series.

rank

Name

Profession
/ reputation

Died

1

Mother
Teresa

Catholic nun, child poverty activist

1997
FB

2

Jawaharlal
Nehru

India's
first prime minister, independence leader

1964

3

Vallabhbhai
Patel

Deputy
PM, independence leader, secured the inclusion of the sovereign "princely
states" of colonial India into the independent Indian federation

The
Australians were apparently in a big rush because their version of the show
was greatly condensed. They did the entire special in just one day, with the
celebrity advocates choosing the top seven, followed by a citizen "jury"
ranking their picks (though only the "number one" rank was ultimately
revealed). As such, this list may be dismissed as being the least legitimate
"greatest" pick.

The "Greatest
South African" special was canceled mid-series due to controversy over
some of the members of the top 100. As a result, the top 10 were never ranked.
Nelson Mandela was given the number one spot automatically.

rank

Name

Profession
/ reputation

Died

1

Nelson
Mandela

South
Africa's first black president, anti-apartheid activist

?

Dr.
Christiaan Barnard

surgeon,
performed first open heart transplantation

2001

?

F.W.
de Klerk

last
white president, dismantled apartheid system

?

Mahatma
Gandhi

Indian
independence leader, also active in lobbying for rights of Indian-South
Africans

Though
Pim Fortuyn is ranked in first place, the Dutch television station which ran
the contest has since admitted that a large number of call-in votes could not
be counted due to time restraints. After the contested ended, it was revealed
that had the vote counting deadline been extended, Prince William would have
actually placed first and Fortuyn second.

Note:
The "Greatest Argentines" list was not ranked 1 to 10, but rather just pitted the final 10 candidates against each other tournament-style to establish a top five, then allowing voters to chose who should be number one.

rank

Name

Profession
/ reputation

Died

1

José
de San Martín

leader
of war of independence against Spain

1850

top 5

Juan
Manuel Fangio

Forumal 1 racer

1995

top 5

Dr.
Rene Favaloro

creator
of bypass surgery, first surgeon to perform the operation

2000

top 5

Che
Guevara

Communist
revolutionary and architect of Cuban coup. Government minister in Castro
regime

1967 X

top 5

Alberto
Olmedo

comedian / actor

1988

?

Jorge
Luis Borges

poet
and author

1986

?

Eva
Peron

activist
first lady and "power behind the throne" of president Juan Peron
(1946-1955)

"Politician"
is by far the most commonly occurring profession on the lists. The United States
and Portuguese lists feature the most politicians- seven out of 10. Second is
India with six out of 10.

South Africa has
the most Nobel Prize winners, with three- all of whom won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Canada and Israel have the most foreign-born, with three.

Bulgaria's list is
the most "historical," featuring eight people who died before the
year 1900, including four who died before 1000 AD. Greece's features seven who died before 1900, and six who died before 1000 AD.

The least historic
is South Africa. Six of their 10 are still alive, with two more having only
died within the last three years of the contest.

* * *

EPILOGUE

In 1992 American
historian Michael H. Hart wrote a book entitled The 100, which purported
to provide "a ranking of the most influential persons in history."
I thought it might be interesting to note his top ten picks. Only a couple names
appear on the previous lists we've looked at.

Beside each name
I've noted the modern-day country we can say these people "came from."

rank

Name

Profession
/ reputation

Country

Died

1

Muhammad

prophet
and founder of the Islamic faith

Saudi
Arabia

c.632

2

Sir
Isaac Newton

scientist,
pioneer of gravity, motion theories

Britain

1727

3

Jesus
Christ

prophet
and founder of Christianity

Palestine

c.
29 X

4

Gautama
Buddha

founder
of Buddhism

Nepal

c.
483 BC

5

Confucius

founder
of Confucianism

China

c.
479 BC

6

St.
Paul of Tarsus

Christian
theologian influential in spreading Christianity outside of the Middle East

Turkey

c.
67

7

Tsai
Lun

inventor
of paper

China

121

8

Johannes
Gutenberg

inventor
of the printing press

Germany

1468

9

Christopher
Columbus

explorer,
first European to discover North America

Italy/Spain

1506

10

Albert
Einstein

scientist,
founder of theory of relativity

Germany

1955

The three countries
we've looked at (Spain, England, and Germany) all include "their"
people in their respective national tallies.